NPD: Android zooms past iPhone in Q1

The Android operating system moved into second place in sales for the first quarter, outpacing the iPhone OS for the first time while still falling short of the BlackBerry platform, according to the NPD Group.

According to NPD, Android took a 28 percent share of the U.S. smart phone market in Q1, behind Research in Motion’s 36 percent share and ahead of iPhone OS at 21 percent.

The numbers are derived from monthly consumer surveys but don’t include corporate smart phone sales. What it suggests, if it’s true, is that Android’s momentum is picking up, helped along by aggressive sales by carrier partners such as Verizon which sells many smart phones for free with the purchase of another smart phone.

The fact that you can get Android phones on every carrier also means that sales should always be pretty robust compared to the iPhone OS, which is still an exclusive on AT&T in the U.S.

And also, with new iPhones out usually every June or July, it’s possible that consumers start to wind down their iPhone purchases as they anticipate a new model.

So in some ways, this was expected at some point. There is going to be an army of Androids compared to Apple’s much smaller iPhone offering at any given time. Still, it marks a turning point and says that the Android platform is gaining momentum.